To Mr. Simple:

You may have noticed that I rarely mention Mr. Simple on the blog.  There have been a variety of reasons for that over the years.

First of all, Mr. Simple isn't, well, all that simple.  I mean, he is to a certain point, but if he was living in this house all by himself, this probably isn't the way that he would live.  But he mostly goes along with it and doesn't roll his eyes.  Much.

Second, he isn't really a big "public" sort of guy.  Well, that's not entirely true since he has done local sport broadcasting, both on TV and radio, for the last 10 years.  He also was the public safety officer for the city's fire department for 10 years.  Everywhere we go, he runs into someone that he knows. But knowing someone's name and being able to chit-chat with them is one thing.  Having me blog about him is another. (Of course, you may have noticed that I am, uh, blogging about him.)

Third, and I'm keeping it real here, things haven't always beeen super-duper fantabulous between Mr. Simple and I.  We have been married for almost 17 years, but there have been a couple of rather large bumps.  I always just posted here about me, or about the kids, or simple living, because it was easier and less messy and embarrassing than talking about my marriage. 

I love Mr. Simple and I always will.  But we met and married in a huge whirlwind and we came from very different backgrounds.  Fairly early on, we both felt that we weren't all that compatible. Add to that all the stress over the years - stress of infertility, job loss, miscarriage, family, different backgrounds and other things, well, let's just say that we struggled.  And I didn't think we would make it.

And then, quietly, slowly, we found each other again.  And we also discovered that over the years, we had become compatible.  And we discovered not only that we were compatible, but we were friends.  We were truly "best friends."  We had come to the point that we loved each other for so many things - the things that only the two of us had shared: the funny, the embarrassing, the tragic.  We loved because we knew how to make each other laugh.  We were each the person that we always thought of first to tell about something.  We loved each other because we didn't want to lose each other.  We loved each other because we made this family together and we wanted to keep it together.

And so this is for you Mr. Simple.  I love you.  (He is cringing right now.  We are so not the gushing PDA type.) Thank you for being my husband.  I am a better person because I have been your wife. 

Well, it is done . . .

Remember this post?

Well, in case you don't feel like clicking the link, remember this picture?

We bought this playset at the end of August. And then Mr. Simple was gone many weekends, and it rained, and rained, and rained. And only had help one weekend, way back in early September, and that was one guy. But he has kept at it, working on it when he could. By early this October, it was functional. The rock wall, slide, rope wall, and tire swing and the beams for the swings were all up. The only thing left to do was put the roof on. And then it rained. And he was out of town. This weekend, he decided that he was going to finish it, rain or shine. It rained Thursday. It rained Friday. It sprinkled on Saturday. It sprinkled on Sunday. It rained off and on today.

But he decided to do it anyway. He did it when he could. When it wasn't pouring. And today, right before dinner, he finished. He was excited.

So were we. The kids love it. I love it. I'm so glad that we bought it. It will provide many years of fun.

Thank you Mr. Simple for all your hard work!!!!

It's Nice To Be Nice To The Nice

(From M*A*S*H, I've seen every episode at LEAST four or five times.)

Today, Mr. Simple came home at lunch time. I was hosting playgroup, and so there were many children running around, as young children are known to do. Mr. Simple said that he would just go out and get some lunch. I asked if he would pick me up some lunch too, although I was mostly joking. I wouldn't have minded if he did, but it wasn't necessary. I was going to be serving lunch to the children soon, so I could just eat what they were eating.

But Mr. Simple did bring me back lunch. And he brought me back a tasty green salad with grilled chicken. But the best part was the peas. Rarely are there peas in a restaurant salad or even on most salad bars (are they still called salad bars anymore? That term seems so 80s or something.) I know, because I look. Because I love peas in my salad. (And if you haven't tried it, you should give peas a chance. Sorry, I couldn't resist!)

So I'm sitting here eating a yummy salad given to me nicely from nice Mr. Simple. Thank you, Mr. Simple. It was nice.